Free of family

32

Arkyn decided to go to Klaus, see if he would undagger Rebekah. It was a long shot, but he wanted to at least try.
"Arkyn, what a surprise." Klaus said.
"Can't a guy just visit his big broth-" Arkyn stopped. "Yeah, no. I can't."
"What do you want?"
"I hear you've got Rebekah?"
"Yes. Your friends daggered her."
"I didn't know. I only just found out."
"Yes, I figured from all your voicemails. What did you say to her that was so harsh?"
"That's between Rebekah and I. I want to undagger her. Where is she?"
"I'm sorry. You're too late. Get your girlfriend to tell you where the coffins are, and maybe I'll reconsider."
"I already tried."
"How does your relationship even work? She has your precious Kol."
"And after all that, she's still a better person than you, Klaus."
"You used to call me Nik."
"Yes and that was a very long time ago. You're Klaus now." Arkyn sighed and turned away to leave.
"This town- it's just an excuse for you to hate me." Klaus stopped him. "You never cared much for me."
"I didn't tell Mikael where you were." Arkyn looked back at him. "I never told him. He came into to me, in 1914, threatened my friends. Threatened me. I didn't tell him. For five years he tried to torment it out of me. He got in my head and killed my friends over and over in different ways. He tried to manipulate me, tried to use Rebekah and Kol against me. He even told me you killed Esther- that it wasn't him. I never believed him, because as much of a monster you were, I didn't think you'd kill our mother. He told me a lot of things, most of which were lies, so I stood by you. I refused to help him. Then one day, he realised I wouldn't help him willingly. So he got in my head, and instead of pushing thoughts in, he searched through my memories to find you, and left me alone, weakened and hurt. My friends found me, days later. They took me home, helped me. Saved me. Then you killed them. And unlike in Mikael's mental torture, they weren't coming back."
"You said-"
"I was angry. I was pissed off and I was hurt. And I hated you so much in that moment, I wanted you to hurt. But that's the difference between you and me. Mikael came after the things you loved, and you lashed out at me. You killed off an entire town, because I loved them. And you hated that I could be happy away from you. When you came after the people I loved, I just wanted you to stop looking smug."
"I didn't kill them because I wanted you to not be happy. I killed them because they were happy with you. I've been your brother for a thousand years, and yet you cared for them a lot more than you ever cared for us."
"I loved you. When we were human, you were my brother. Sure, we didn't always get along. You were always with Rebekah and Elijah, and I had Kol. But you were still my brother. And I looked up to you. Because no matter what Mikael put you through, you still found the good in the world. With your art. But that was several lifetimes ago. Because a century later, you left me daggered for two centuries. And that is when I started to hate you. That's when you stopped being Nik. All I could think was, my brother, the man I admired once upon a time, frightened me. I was scared."
"Ark-"
"And I can stand here and go through all the reasons of why I hate you, explain to you why everything you did was wrong, but that would take a century in itself, and I have no desire to keep talking to you. So undagger Rebekah, or don't. One of these days I'll undagger them all. You can keep Elijah." He walked away, leaving Klaus at a loss for words.

That evening, Caroline came to his door. He opened it and let her in.
"What's wrong?" He asked.
"Everything. Your psycho brother got Tyler to bite me with the stupid sire bond and-"
"When?" He questioned, immediately looking for the bite.
"No, he came and healed me which was weird. Anyways, Tyler said he can't put me first as long as Klaus has him on a leash and then he called my dad so that he would help him break the sire bond and now my dad's making him shift on command over and over until Tyler no longer feels grateful."
"That's where you just came from?"
"Yeah." She said. Arkyn led her to the living room where Alexis was painting her toe nails.
"Hey Caroline." Caroline looked at him curiously and he shook his head.
"Don't ask." He said. "Here, wait here for a second." He sped away, and returned with a vial. "Werewolf bite cure whenever."
"Where did you get this?"
"From Klaus. The day Stefan left with him to Chicago. I demanded for a back up in case something happened to the one he gave Katherine." Arkyn shrugged. "I trust you will be sensible with it?"
"You're giving it to me?"
"In case something like yesterday happens again. In case I don't know and you urgently need a cure. But don't take it lightly. Try to save it for a real emergency. There might be a day, years from now. Maybe even decades or centuries. So save it."
"Thanks." She gripped it.
"Just make sure I never have to hear that you've died of a werewolf bite."
"I'll try my best." She smiled.
"Come sit!" Alexis called and Arkyn took his previous seat beside Alexis as she stretched her legs over him. Caroline sat on an armchair.
"What's next? Makeovers?" She teased.
"Don't give her any ideas."